EXPLORING HOW CACHE MEMORY REALLY WORKS

Summary from the TLDR Web Dev newsletter

Cache memory is a temporary storage located on the processor that increases CPU efficiency by holding frequently accessed data. The CPU cache is organized in levels (L1, L2, L3, etc.) with varying speeds and sizes, with L1 being the fastest and smallest. Cache placement policies determine where data is stored in the cache. Direct mapping is one of the simplest approaches. Programmers can write cache-friendly code by optimizing data locality, avoiding complex loops, and using appropriate struct alignment and compiler flags.